This time last year it would have been a singular person who would have foretold the seismic changes which the world was due to undergo during the course of the last 12 months.

Whether Brexit and the election of Donald Trump filled you with hope or despair, those events are behind us now and our efforts have got to centre on doing our best for the future. Not to engage with the new order is simply ‘not an option’, as the saying goes. Change is always a challenge and the changes we face are on a monumental scale, so the next few months and years will keep us busy, if nothing else.

I take this opportunity to wish you all a very restful and revitalising Christmas.